Part Two....

Here is the video for Part Two of the Wire Wrapped Crystal Cluster Ring....Part Three coming to a station near you very soon.

If I only had a dollar for every Youtube Hit

Some time ago when I was contributing projects to Australian Beading Magazine, I decided to make a little video tutorial on a wire wrapped ring.  I made it in three parts as I wanted to show everything and not leave beginners wondering how things were done.  The third part was the most informative with the decorating of the ring.  Little did I know that over 175,000 people have watched part three - so not sure when my big break is coming but wouldn't it be nice to get just a few cents per view.  I have not viewed these tutorials for sometime, just listening to my own voice makes me shudder... and I think a few of the viewers had some not so nice comments about my Australian accent, but I got over that.  I still had my old website address on the videos and decided today to fix that.  So here are the new uploads - enjoy....please don't comment on the voice LOL!

PS. It took me longer than I thought to upload the new versions so here is Part One and I will get Part Two and Three upload in the next couple of days.

The Quest for the Perfect Photos

I always like to photograph every bead and creation I make.  Photographing them gives me a visual diary of my achievements and I can see the advances that I have made over the years that I have been making beads.  A couple of nights ago I made up some pendants to take down to a local store L'abundance that will be stocking my items and I have been waiting to photograph them, but it has been raining here at home for a few days.  I love taking photos in the natural light and on a timber background, it give me the feel I want.  This morning I bit the bullet and trudged outside with the golf umbrella, camera, box of beads and two smelly wet dogs to take my photos.  I had no time to be creative without getting totally wet, and it is hard to hold a camera and umbrella at the same time.  So here are the results, not too shabby.

Stepping out of your comfort zone.

Since I have moved I have been somewhat sheltered from my old social life.  I have generally just been working and looking after house and trying to fit the good parts of my old life into my awesome new life.  I had retreated from my old social scene and the downside of that was that I was missing out on talking to people and friends that had the same interests as I did.  A couple of days ago I got the urge to contact a lady who owns a business in my new town about the possibility of stocking some of my glass pieces,  this would not normally be a problem for me, but a got a sudden wave of fear - maybe she would want to talk with me, maybe she would not like my stuff, maybe, maybe, maybe.   Well maybe I should just get off my butt and just message her.

Well I did that and today I spent the good part of an hour in her shop talking about my creations and just generally getting to know each other.  It was good to share common interests and to generally have a good chat.  I am so glad I put that little bit of fear aside and followed my gut instinct.

So in a couple of weeks I will have some of my finished items in a shop call L'abundance in Fernvale

There is wonderful energy in this shop and worth a visit if you pass this way.

2011 was an eventful year for me, my business and my family.  I wound up a business, moved to a new town, and started a new job and due to this it has been a long time between blogs. Since so many things have changed for me over the last 18 months I decided to ditch my old blog and start a fresh with something that is more in line with the person I am today.

I have moved from suburbia to a lovely home on over one acre, with great plans for the gardens, veggie patches and chook pens.  At the moment we have one lonely chook (one died), one pony, two dogs and between my partner and I, four school aged kids that come and go.

For me most importantly my studio was moved out here recently, so now I have room to create my lampwork beads and space to create the finished jewellery and other crafty projects.

So what to expect from this blog..... ?  Well I love cooking, creating, gardening and photography and I am generally inspired by nature.  So really it will be my online diary for my creative life.

I am eternally grateful for where I am at the moment, so many lessons have been learnt in the last 18 months.  So I will be posting what I am grateful for, what I love, and what inspires me.

So I will leave you with some lampwork goodness that I created last night.